


Instants

by icameheretowinry



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-09
Updated: 2018-04-09
Packaged: 2019-04-20 17:17:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14265870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icameheretowinry/pseuds/icameheretowinry
Summary: A repository of fma/b one-shots requested and originally posted on tumblr. No chapters are connected, but are completely stand-alone instants within and surrounding the fma/b canon universe. I'll update characters and relationships as needed.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Writing prompt: "You can't die. Please don't die." ft. Winry Rockbell

The clatter of the wrench clutched in Winry’s hand as it hit the worn wooden floor was deafening. Loose screws danced aimlessly around it. The leg of the table behind her pressed into the small of her back. Shadows tugged at the corners of her vision. The choked voice of her grandmother echoed somewhere in front of her, reaching out to her desperately. 

She grew heavier around the edges, as if a giant hand was balling her up like a scrap of useless paper; a soul about to go supernova. Cement-like air oozed into her lungs, and sky filled quickly shifted crimson like the rush of blood after a mortal wound. 

“Why… can’t I… move?” she asked.

The voices around her sounded garbled, as if spoken underwater. The voices of two men died in their throats. Somehow, she imagined Pinako insulting someone before she yielded. She wanted to cry out, to scream, to beg, to swear, to promise, yet, all her words and tears were spent. Each star suffocating into the dark, each light within her snuffed out like candles one by one with haunted fingers. 

She clutched her chest as the gravity of death assaulted her lungs. She saw him standing before her through squinted eyes, the same look of tortured determination etched on his face. 

“Ed... please save us.”

She was on a train, the artificial wind whipping tendrils of her blond her across her vision. The moment when she realized she liked the feeling of his soul brushing up against her own, even though the twins suns of his gaze were always facing another horizon. She felt the rain run down her ever-foreign bones. 

You can’t die. Please don’t die.

A whisper of amusement crossed her dimming mind.

He’d tell me not to worry. That… idiot… 

“Please… Ed…”

Somewhere across the country, Ed’s head, clearing of chaos, thought he felt a whisper lilt upon his shoulder. 

It was like light, like kindness, like loss, and then, it was gone.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing prompt: "Can I hold your hand?" ft. Alphonse Elric x Mei Chang

The dying light of the fire splashed lazily over the cabin’s rough wooden walls. The soft glow reared up the angular plane of his breastplate, only to retreat to the murderous plane of his metallic knees. A quiet sigh echoed in the cavernous interior of his armored body. It was going to be another long night alone. 

The same firelight temporarily dyed Mei’s foreign attire a feeble shade of yellowish-orange. She was curled up, cat-like, around Xiao-Mei. Her long, dark braids slithered over the lavender hued bag she used as a pillow. To her left, her kunai poised expectantly in the dirt, each anchoring the point of a star. 

If it weren’t for her fatigue, he would’ve continued practicing. Her alchemy never failed to fascinate him. Where his coursed through his veins like angular fire, hers rolled swiftly in a cool, silver stream. Where his ripped the earth apart, hers knitted it back together. His gaze shifted back to her as she twisted onto her back in her sleep, and Al couldn’t help but notice how the sleeves of her shirt fell several finger lengths too short down her slender arms. Despite his unnatural consciousness, the years still seemed to slip unknowingly by. 

For all the growth accumulating around him, his soul stubbornly remained the same, if perhaps a bit blurrier around the edges. It stretched to fill the immensity of his armor, just as it always had. A perfect fit. 

He contemplated sneaking outside, yet when he tested movement, his cold-locked joints creaked like thunder in cabin’s silent air. Xiao-mei growled softly in her sleep and one of Mei’s dark brows twitched against a dream. If he could, Al would’ve smiled. 

The twitch deepened into a frown, and he wondered if he was exasperating her in her sleep as well. While he was quick to grasp the theories of alkahestry, accessing his inner reserves of chi was something more easily said than done. Some days were much easier than others. Today hadn’t been one of them. Despite their frustration, he had to suppress a laugh as the memory of that morning returned to him. 

Her expression had been nothing short of comical; her pale cheeks flushed pink from a potent combination of vexation and the cold, her braids swinging wildly across her back and around her shoulders, and each index finger fixed to her temples. But with that gesture, he knew all hope was lost for the moment. Whenever he used his head, his progress halted very firmly in its tracks. The hinges of the little door where he kept it shut inside would seize up, infected with logical rust. 

Mei flew through life heart first. No wonder it was easy for her. And for a second, his soul felt impossibly small, like a single flickering star in the emptiness of a metallic sky. 

“Alphonse?” 

He quickly turned himself right side out, coming face to armor with a very drowsy Mei. Sitting up in front of the tiny mountain of flickering coals, she seemed to glow in the dark. 

“Do you…” she paused as a yawn forced its way into her sentence and broke it in two, “feel that?” 

That’s when he noticed it; the overwhelming presence of chi, and only a second later to realize where it was coming from. It was bleeding out of him like a fatal wound, spilling out of every crevice of his armor, and giving him away. 

“It… feels lonely…” she mumbled as sleep began to tug a curtain over her ebony eyes, and leaned her back onto the floor. 

“Mei?” Al asked suddenly, still reeling inside his metal shell, “Can I hold your hand?” 

“Mmhmm,” Mei answered with a tiny nod of her head. 

Her eyes were already shut when Al closed the large expanse of his artificial hand around hers. He nearly lost his grip when the tiniest tremor, like an electrical shock, briefly coursed through him. It was the ghost of feeling, but he decided to take what he could get. 

“We’ll do this properly one day,” he dared to whisper as he calmed, “I promise.” 

And somewhere in the middle of a dream, the sleeping princess smiled.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing prompt: "“This is, by far, the dumbest thing you’ve ever done.” ft. Edward Elric x Winry Rockbell

Winry’s eyes flew open as she took in a lungful of acrid air. Sitting up in bed, the hazy room shifted and blurred at the edges. Near the ceiling, a thin cloud cover of gray smoke hovered menacingly like a bizarre kind of thunderstorm. As consciousness roughly overtook her fatigued brain, the blond mechanic sprung out of bed, and forced open her bedroom door. 

Something’s… BURNING?!

The same lazy layer of smoke drifted along the hallway ceiling before concentrating more aggressively near the door to the kitchen. A series of metallic clatters, following quickly by a string of curses, confirmed her suspicions. 

“EDWARD WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!”

Without hesitation, she rushed to the window above the kitchen sink and forced it open. The smoke rushed out quickly into the breezy summer morning like a guest that who knew they’d overstayed their welcome. As the air in the kitchen finally began to clear, Winry was unceremoniously greeted with the horrifying aftermath of Ed’s attempt at cooking. 

The stove shimmered with an oily sheen of grease, while tendrils of dark gray smoke continued to rise from whatever he annihilated behind the oven door. The varied topography displayed in a pan of overcooked eggs, she had to admit, was honestly impressive. In the center of the disaster zone, Ed pushed his sweaty golden bangs out of his eyes. The surface of her pale pink apron he’d borrowed looked more like a modern art piece than standard kitchen attire. The lower right corner of the garment was singed an angry maroon. 

“I made breakfast?” he said with a cautious smile, “Surprise?”

“BREAKFAST?!” she shouted incredulously, and feeling the heat bloom on her cheeks, “It looks like a war zone in here!!” 

He glanced around, fully taking in the apocalyptic scene around him. 

“So cooking isn’t my strong suit…” he admitted as he reached for the pan of obliterated eggs, “Can I at least get some points for effort—“ 

“Wait, Ed! The pan!”

Her warning failed to reach him as his bare hand briefly closed around the hot metal of the handle. Several curse-filled moments later, Winry dragged him, for her safety and his own, to the dining room to bandage him up. 

“Lucky for you,” said with a frown as she turned his injured hand over to assess the damage, “It’s not as bad as it looks.” 

Ed winced and she covered the wound with a thin layer of calming cream. 

“You know,” she began, “this is, by far, the dumbest thing you have ever done.” 

“Wh-what?!” sputtered Ed. 

“Edward Elric,” she continued as she reached for a roll of bandages, “The youngest state alchemist in history. The prodigy. The man who punched God in the face—“

She paused. He blinked. 

“— Defeated by eggs and bacon!” 

She couldn’t suppress a laugh. Try as she might, the anger never seemed to last long. Ed smiled and shook his head. It was hard to argue with that logic. Without a word, he slipped his uninjured hand into his pocket and withdrew a small black box, before placing it on the table in front of her. She eyed it suspiciously. 

“Geez don’t worry, Win,” he assured her, “It’s nothing I cooked!” 

“Oh, alright.”

When she finished with his hand, she picked up the small box. It’s delicate hinges twisting open with a gentle creak. Nestled in a plump pillow of cotton, a pair of earrings, each shaped like a tiny human skull with a pair of devilish horns, for lack of a better term, stared back up at her. 

“I designed them myself!” explained Ed, the pride radiating off him nearly palpable, “Al did the alchemy bit, but I did the rest.”

Winry sighed and buried her face in her hands. 

“I know I get you earrings every year,” he continued, “but I thought you could use something a bit… um, I don’t know… Edgier?” 

Winry said nothing, a quietly amused smile curled across her lips. 

“Well???” he asked, wiggling an eyebrow expectantly. 

“I’m… speechless,” she replied with a giggle, “Simply beyond words.” 

“Excellent!” said Ed, “Happy Birthday, Win!” 

Again, she gave him nothing but a smile in return. 

“You going to make a birthday wish or what?” he asked.

“Yes!” replied the blond mechanic brightly while grasping his unharmed hand, “Please, Ed, from the bottom of my heart: No. More. Gifts.” 

“I thought you liked them!” he pouted. 

Winry gave his hand a gentle squeeze, “I’m positive it’s enough for a lifetime.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing prompt: "It's all your fault!" ft. Greedling and Lan Fan

Greed felt his grip on the human boy’s body weaken. One by one, the fingers of his patchwork soul slipping from the edge of control. Normally, he hated being shoved aside and cast adrift in that sea of naive humanity. But not now. Now, it was all he could do pry his precious grip away. 

He fell slowly. His armored skin reflected the light of the clear Central afternoon with dull enthusiasm. The air parted slowly around his flailing limbs. White hot fire ripped through his shoulder as she caught him. 

Curse humans. And curse their wretched pain…

His vision faltered as he turned inward, thrusting the human boy’s soul to the surface of the battered vessel they shared. To his surprise, they tangled in the crowded darkness, each evading complete consciousness. 

“What are you doing?!” Greed demanded, pulling away, the claws of his being bared. 

His host answered by once again shoving him back towards control. Greed froze. Raw emotion was evaporating off the human’s surface, and tangling dangerously with his own. Something clenched in his chest, and he surrendered. 

The mask didn’t fool him. He knew who she was. In all his years, he’s never seen such an intensity in the eyes of a human before. It was a once in an eternity kind of stare. They gleamed in the harsh sun like dark stars, and it paralyzed him. 

What are you…?

In those clear ebony eyes, he may have glimpsed more than a clear reflection of himself. They screamed, “He’s mine!” The words lodged in his throat as streams of crimson rivered down the metallic surface of her artificial limb. Her lips were lined with pain. The human boy’s hands burned into his back as he was forced to look on. 

Greed felt her tear hit his cheek. 

It burned him. Her everything was, after all, much smaller than his. 

It’s all your fault!

He couldn’t ignore the thought thundering in his head. 

“What are you doing?!” Greed yelled into the abyss of souls, “This is your reality. Get out here and face it!” 

Ling said nothing. 

“Can’t you see she’s in pain?!” 

Silence. 

“LING!”

She was looking beyond him, within in, as she always did. Straining to see something she recognized under the veil of his possession. 

It’s all your fault…

The tormented echo shredded him from the inside out, it’s origin foggy and gray. And he wished with his entire fabricated heart that her gaze would rest linger on the surface and tell him it wasn’t true. 

But, everyone wants something they don’t have.


End file.
